One Last Beating Heart
by The GirlieGyarados
Summary: I really suck at descriptions, so... Pokemon POV. the Poliwag evolutionary series. Alternate Evolutions. A little romance. Slightly Romeo and Juliet. Somewhat sad-happy. One-shot. Almost poetic format. I'm real articulate, ain't I?


One Last Beating Heart ***  
  
A/N: You all know of the alternate evolutions- Bellossom and Vileplume, Poliwrath and Politoed, and the entire set of Eeveelutions. I noticed that Bellossom seemes to be rarer than Vileplume and Politoed seems to be rarer than Poliwrath. What must it be like to be a member of one of these rare, alternate evolutions. How do other pokemon cope?  
  
This story is told though the eyes of a female Poliwag as she grows up, and learns what it really means to live the life you have. Kinda Romeo and Juliet-ish. Kinda sad-happy. Hope I didn't borrow too much from The Giver and To Kill A Mockingbird-I didn't mean to, but rereading this, I think I might have...  
  
A/N: Do not read if you cannot handle mature themes, tearjerkiness, or the concept of pokemon as sexual creatures. And if you can't, why are you even reading anything that I write??  
  
Disclaimer. I'm tired. I'm bitchy. I do not own Pokemon, or either of the two songs mentioned in here. Hmm. Coincidence? I think not. ***  
  
We lost another one today.   
  
That's the second one this week.  
  
It's frightening, now, many of my friends have evolved or have Left.  
  
That's the word they use for it. Left.  
  
It's horrible, really.  
  
When a Poliwhirl becomes PoliWrath, we have a celebration.  
  
When one of us any any stage of evolution is captured, we mourn their loss.  
  
When one has Left-  
  
We feel nothing.  
  
My kind hate those who have Left, because they are different somehow.  
  
I can remember Kuito.  
  
She was the last of our gang-  
  
Orita, Yuyakyi, Jinoji, Tetoshio, Kuito and myself-  
  
-To evolve into Poliwhirl.  
  
Of my friends, Jinoji was the first to evolve into Poliwhirl and the fastest to learn.  
  
He was very ambitious.  
  
He wanted to lead the community one day.  
  
When we were all growing interested in the other genders,  
  
Jinoji was in it thick with the other leaders.  
  
My mother said he was precocious.  
  
That meant he was always years more grown up than the rest of us were.  
  
And miles ahead of me.  
  
I'm not all that bright, you see.  
  
I was always the smallest,  
  
The youngest,  
  
The most immature,  
  
Of all my friends and of all the Poliwag for quite a while.  
  
Jinoji had a certain fondness for Kuito since I could remember.  
  
Kuito and Yuyakyi were always odd, I thought.  
  
In a way, they were more adventurous than we were.  
  
They were always trying to venture out of the water,  
  
And see all that what was above the surface.  
  
But their mothers, fathers, or other older relatives would always drag them back down again.  
  
With sound admonishments to stay below the surface.  
  
But they weren't like Tetoshio,  
  
He was very brave and adventurous,  
  
And loud and brassy and proud and gregarious.  
  
Yuyakyi and Kuito were quiet and softspoken.  
  
They liked to sit alone and be quiet, even when they were still poliwags,  
  
I asked my mother why.  
  
The first dozen times she told me to hush.  
  
The next dozen she said it wasn't my business.  
  
The dozen after that, she was stolidly silent.  
  
But the next time I asked, she said that they were Dreamers, with their head in the sand.  
  
Her voice was very low and she told me not to mention it to anybody.  
  
She said to never act like she knew they were different.  
  
But I noticed that they never recieved good treatment from the older ones.  
  
The other would veer out of their way when they were swimming, without them even having to ask.  
  
(You see, me and the other three never got anywhere without having to ask older ones to move.).  
  
When the older ones looked at them they were odd looks.  
  
Sometimes pity.  
  
Sometimes awe.  
  
Sometimes bemusement.  
  
Once or twice I even saw fear or hatred.  
  
But most often it was an inscrutable, studying look, as if there was something about them,  
  
That no one could figure out.  
  
My family, I remember, didn't like those two very much.  
  
We were only allowed to play with them because their families were old friends of ours.  
  
I often heard Mother consoling Kuito's or Yuyakyi's family about them,  
  
Even though it seemed like those two's families were as odd to them as the rest of the community was,  
  
So it made no sense that they should even care about them at all.  
  
By the time I was a Poliwhirl, I got the idea that being a Dreamer,  
  
Or being friends with one,  
  
Or being related to one,  
  
Was a Bad Thing.  
  
A shameful thing.  
  
I was one of the late evolutions into Poliwhirl.  
  
Orita, Tetoshio, Jinoji, and Yuyakyi were already Poliwhirl.  
  
I could already see that Orita and Tetoshio were becoming like the olders.  
  
That is, becoming odd to Kuito and Yuyakyi.  
  
Sometimes Tetoshio was downright rude.  
  
Soon, Orita and Tetoshio began to meld right in with the olders.  
  
If I hadn't known it to be true, I'd never believed that they were once great friends.  
  
Jinoji, too, retreated from them somewhat.  
  
He didn't seem to care much anymore about Yuyakyi.  
  
But he did think a great deal about Kuito, from what I picked up from being his friend.  
  
He began to be more seclusive, more withdrawn.  
  
I often saw Kuito and him exchanging glances.  
  
Wondering glances.  
  
Apologetic glances.  
  
Sorrowful glances.  
  
Lovelorn glances.  
  
However, soon, I did not really notice that I noticed it that much.  
  
Like my mother had said, now was the time when my mind was taken over by my hormones.  
  
Now, I spent even more time than usual around Kuito and Yuyakyi.  
  
Partially because I had always talked to them.  
  
I was too afraid to join in their adventues to the shore,  
  
But I would always sit in rapture with their tales and descriptions. Of what it was like above the water.  
  
In the land of those who walked on miraculous fins called feet.  
  
Lugia, Mew, Suicune, I wanted to go with them.  
  
But now, also, I was starting to notice the way Yuyakyi's eyes gleamed when he talked about the shore.  
  
And how he got so excited when we talked about going somewhere other than here.  
  
And his cute blushing whenever I touched him.  
  
Though Kuito told me it was because I was blushing too,  
  
I knew that she was joking.  
  
Though there was always a hint of sadness or regret  
  
In her eyes or in her voice.  
  
But I only realized this a bit later.  
  
I'm not very smart  
  
As you've seen.  
  
But soon, we began to become late-level Poliwhirls.  
  
Time really flies, doesn't it?  
  
Tetoshio had found a female Poliwhirl a few months ago.  
  
Orita had found a male, as well.  
  
And as the time when we would be expected to evolve drew near,  
  
The olders began to be even more odd around Kuito and Yuyakyi.  
  
Some were testing,  
  
Some were bullying, which I didn't really understand,  
  
And those,  
  
Those olders who'd been the kindest in their oddness toward Kuito and Yuyakyi,  
  
And who were also the wisest olders,  
  
They became incredibly sad around Kuito and Yuyakyi.  
  
Just like Jinoji was around Kuito now.  
  
They could barely look at each other with falling into tears.  
  
I know that I asked an older, one of the kind olders,  
  
Why eveyone was so sad about Kuito and Yuyakyi,  
  
Especially Jinoji.  
  
The older told me that he admired my mind.  
  
I asked him why, because I knew that I wasn't very bright  
  
Or I would know what was going on.  
  
He laughed a little,  
  
And said that what he meant was,  
  
He admired my pure state of mind,   
  
Especially since everyone was making such a big deal about the evolution tiume.  
  
I said that's what I didn't understand.  
  
Why pokemon were so odd to them,   
  
Especially in this evolution time.  
  
It hadn't happened when we were all about to evolve into Poliwhirl.  
  
Only for the Poliwrath stage.   
  
The final stage.  
  
The older sighed at that.  
  
He looked old.  
  
Old, and weary.  
  
And he said to me,  
  
"Child, our society keeps you in the dark,  
  
All but the Dreamers.  
  
Poliwrath,   
  
Is not what you think it is,"  
  
After this he got up and swam away.  
  
I spent the better part of a week trying to figure out what the older had meant.  
  
At the end of the week, there would be a Poli-monster festival.  
  
It was a holiday celebrating emotions.  
  
It was so ancient, no one knew where it came from.  
  
But it was celebrated every year.  
  
When the Spring equinox was over.  
  
Adventurous Yuyakyi told me that there was a saying up above the surface:  
  
"Ah, Spring! When a young man's fancy turns to love!"  
  
He spoke this with a wry smile and I blushed.  
  
Neither of us knew what a man was, exactly,  
  
But we both caught the gist of the saying.  
  
I also noticed that Jinoji had been trying to talk to Kuito,  
  
But she was shunning him.  
  
I talked to her, even though she was getting more and more withdrawn as the days went by.  
  
She told me that I wouldn't understand,   
  
That it was something concerning her and Jinoji.  
  
But I think she talked about it with Yuyakyi.  
  
I accidently overheard one night as I was traveling home.  
  
It was a very odd conversation.  
  
"Look, take him up on his plea.  
  
You won't be with him forever."  
  
"But I can't!" Kuito had cried.  
  
"How could I live the rest of my life,  
  
Knowing that he and I once knew love,  
  
And left because of that?"  
  
Yuyakyi had to soothe her,   
  
But once he finished, he had resumed his argument.  
  
"You can't live your life knowing that what would make you happy,  
  
You threw away to save your conscience.  
  
Please,  
  
Take this,  
  
Take this memory with you, if nothing else."  
  
Kuito had broken down at that point.  
  
She refused to argue any more.  
  
That night, the festival started.  
  
There was music.  
  
Food.  
  
Games.  
  
Shows.  
  
Laughter.  
  
Love.  
  
Very late, I saw Kuito and Jinoji.   
  
Jinoji, I think was consoling Kuito.  
  
Even though tears were running down his face.  
  
I knew right then that I should get Yuyakyi.  
  
Kuito needed his consolation.  
  
I swam as fast as I could.  
  
Pulled him away from the sidelines.  
  
I was babbling incoherently.  
  
About how Kuito was crying and needed his help.  
  
With him in tow, I hurried back to where I had seen Kuito and Jinoji.  
  
They were gone.  
  
I started to panic,  
  
But Yuyakyi stopped me.  
  
He had a knowing smile on his face.  
  
"Listen," he instructed me.  
  
And I did.  
  
I heard, from nearby, though I couldn't pinpoint where,  
  
Whispers.  
  
Moans.  
  
Soft sounds of endearment.  
  
I blushed five different shades of red.  
  
Yuyakyi saw that and laughed.  
  
He said that he was happy.  
  
Kuito had finally taken his advice.  
  
She was making a memory to take with her.  
  
I could hear that he was happy, it was shining in his voice.  
  
but I also heard his voice crack.  
  
And I also saw the tears travel down his cheek.  
  
and I heard him say:  
  
"I did hope, though,  
  
That I'd get to say goodbye."  
  
Yuyakyi led me away from these lovers.  
  
We went back to the festival.  
  
Neither of us was in the mood for partying.  
  
Both of us sat back and watched the moonlight glimmer against  
  
The topside of the water.  
  
We sat and watched.  
  
Neither of us said a word,  
  
Until we both left to go home for the night.  
  
The next morning,  
  
I learned Jinoji, Tetoshio, and Orika had evolved.  
  
Into Poliwrath.  
  
In a few days time,   
  
We would hold the celebration of their evolution.  
  
Orika and Tetoshio were ecsatic.  
  
But Jinoji was strangely depressed.  
  
Because, you see,   
  
Kuito had Left.  
  
I tried to ask him, because I was in tears.  
  
Frantic.  
  
Looking for Kuito.  
  
I wanted my friend back.  
  
but Jinoji was no help.  
  
He too was in tears.  
  
Desparete.  
  
I fled, looking for Yuyakyi.  
  
Surely he would know where Kuito was.  
  
But when I found him-  
  
He was in a spot buried in reeds, dark and cold-  
  
He too was hysterically crying.  
  
He rushed to me,  
  
And I to him.  
  
We consoled ourselves for quite some time.  
  
When we could talk, I asked him where.  
  
Where had Kuito gone.  
  
She had Left.  
  
I told him I knew she'd left, but where to?  
  
He realized, then, that I didn't understand.  
  
Didn't realize what it meant when someone had Left.  
  
He said it meant that she was gone forever.  
  
No Poliwag, Poliwhirl, or Poliwrath would stand to be around her.  
  
I was shocked.   
  
What could you do,  
  
To exile yourself from your own community?  
  
I noticed, then,  
  
Yuyakyi had been holding me in a way,  
  
A way different than I had ever been held before.  
  
Yuyakyi spoke:  
  
"Jinoji was crying because,  
  
He lost his koibito,  
  
His true love.  
  
Now two of us will today."  
  
Yuyakyi smiled at me through his tears.  
  
I felt my heart break.  
  
And as I watched, he began to glow white.  
  
He grew in size.  
  
His shape changed, with thin limbs.  
  
A plume grew from on his head.  
  
And when the light faded, he stood before me.  
  
I gasped.  
  
Green and yellow, crouched on all fours.   
  
Something I had never seen or heard of before.  
  
"Politoed," he said.   
  
"Goodbye, koibito," I heard.  
  
Yuyakyi then ran off, to the shore, leaving me slumped in the reeds.  
  
It is now night.  
  
We are back to the beginning.  
  
Where I started my story.  
  
I once asked an old friend of mine,  
  
What the word epiphany meant.  
  
I forget how he explained it.  
  
I didn't understand, anyways.  
  
But now, I do.  
  
Now, epiphany was what I was experiencing right now.  
  
It is shocking.  
  
Not only that Poliwhirl could become either  
  
Poliwrath and Politoed,  
  
But that I didn't know of it.  
  
I had no idea there was a choice.  
  
Obviously, very few Poliwhirl  
  
Will become Politoed,  
  
Or I would have known.  
  
I wondered why,  
  
There was this..  
  
Alternate Evolution?  
  
Why was there a difference?  
  
What made them any different?  
  
But I had barely to think about it for a second,  
  
Before the answer came for me.  
  
Politoed was different from Poliwrath.  
  
Politoed has legs,  
  
Strong lungs,  
  
Eyes and ears,  
  
That see and hear  
  
As well in water  
  
As without.  
  
Politoed is a creature that explores,  
  
Beyond the surface,  
  
On the shore.  
  
I see now.  
  
Why my kind hates people who are different so.  
  
It is because they hate Politoed,  
  
For being brave,  
  
For being strong,  
  
For being free.  
  
Politoed is the vision of freedom  
  
Poliwrath is not.  
  
I see now.  
  
The ones who want to explore.  
  
The ones who like the surface.  
  
The Dreamers, with their head in the sand...  
  
They become Politoed.  
  
That's why everyone was concerned about  
  
The evolution time.  
  
There were some Dreamers.  
  
Would they renounce their unnatural ways?  
  
Or would they Leave?  
  
I can see now.  
  
And I see red.  
  
How could my own kind do this?  
  
How could the familes?  
  
How could they turn out their own flesh and blood?  
  
Because they were different,  
  
Because they were Dreamers.  
  
Why was this tolerated?  
  
Why didn't Politoed come back and get some of it's own?  
  
It was truly horrible.  
  
I always knew that   
  
Mew made us all equals.  
  
And that it matters not,  
  
Petty social foibles and fancies.  
  
Your order in the hierarchy matters not.  
  
For no matter what it may mean.  
  
It is what is done with your life,  
  
That truly matters.  
  
I see now,  
  
That that means  
  
Being kind,  
  
When it's unpopular.  
  
Being tolerant,  
  
Especially to the outcasts.  
  
And most important of all.  
  
You must be true,  
  
And live according to what you know is right,  
  
What you know is kind.  
  
And to be true to yourself.  
  
I know now why Kuito was with Jinoji,  
  
That first and last time.  
  
She loved him.  
  
Despite their differences.  
  
They both knew,  
  
That they could never be together,  
  
Forever,  
  
Like the fairytales say.  
  
Fairytales lie.  
  
But even though,  
  
They were so different,  
  
A Dreamer and a Leader,  
  
They were capable of love.  
  
They did love.  
  
Even though they knew,  
  
That there would be nothing more than that one time.  
  
Nothing beyond that moment.  
  
They knew the evolution time was coming.  
  
And they could guess,  
  
That freeing the sorrow,  
  
Lifting the weight from their chest,  
  
That had been there for so long,  
  
Would trigger evolution.  
  
And so, Kuito Left.  
  
Left her koibito.  
  
Left her family.  
  
Left her friends.  
  
Left her home.  
  
Because now that she was Politoed,  
  
They weren't those anymore.  
  
I remember,  
  
Last year,  
  
A Poliwrath named Syorin,  
  
Was the koibito of another,  
  
Named Noiri.  
  
Noiri was killed and eaten by a Victreebel.  
  
And Syorin was dead within the year, too.  
  
He just wasted away,  
  
Lost his will to live,  
  
Went about in a fog,  
  
When he left his den at all.  
  
Didn't eat,  
  
Didn't drink.  
  
His sorrow was palpable.  
  
He died of heartbreak.  
  
You see, all pokemon in the Poliwag series  
  
Mate for life.  
  
If their mate dies or is captured,  
  
(Or Leaves),  
  
They won't take another one.  
  
They'll probably die.  
  
Jinoji and Kuito...  
  
They were my friends.  
  
I loved both of them,  
  
Even though Kuito is now something,  
  
My olders say does not deserve love.  
  
They loved each other, incredibly.  
  
They'll probably die now.  
  
Kuito,  
  
Alone above the surface.  
  
Jinoji,  
  
Alone in a world of intolerance,  
  
That did not know they loved.  
  
Yuyakyi is gone, too.  
  
He fled the community,  
  
Whether in fear,  
  
For the monster he had become,  
  
Or in anger,  
  
From the monsters they had become.  
  
Gone too, are Tetoshio and Orita.  
  
Conformed to our society.  
  
Forgetting the way they once were,  
  
The way we all once were.  
  
I think I am the only one left, now.  
  
Who is not a hollow shell filled by community,  
  
A lost love, dying of heartbreak.  
  
Or leaving from heartbreak of a different kind.  
  
I am alone.  
  
It is sad, to be a water-type.  
  
No one can ever notice your cries,  
  
Your tears just flow into the water all around you.  
  
No one knows you cry.  
  
At least that is the way it usually is.  
  
But I noticed something,  
  
As I cried.  
  
The water in front of me,  
  
Had shimmering droplets of water in it.  
  
They glowed, and glimmered like sunlight on the underside of the surface.  
  
Tears?  
  
But I could not study them any longer.  
  
For, you see, the water around me was glowing white.  
  
*I* was glowing white.  
  
And then my vision flashed white,   
  
And I was transported far away, it seemed.  
  
I could see from all sides.   
  
I was watching myself, floating in a sea,  
  
A sea of shimmering blue,   
  
Eyes closed.  
  
Voices,  
  
Echoing around me,  
  
Coming from nowhere and everywhere,  
  
And fading as fast as they came.  
  
"Hey Dreamer,  
  
Head in the sand   
  
Hey Dreamer,  
  
Gee but it's grand..."  
  
"Poliwrath is not what you think it is..."  
  
"Do this,  
  
If not for me, then for yourself.."  
  
"Koibito.."  
  
"Dreamers..are unnatural.."  
  
"How could I live the rest of my life,  
  
Knowing he and I once knew love..."  
  
"You are only mortal!  
  
You cannot be expected to know  
  
What this truly means.."  
  
"You won't be with him forever..."  
  
"Here's to the night  
  
We felt alive,  
  
Here's to the tears;  
  
You knew you'd cry.  
  
Here's to goodbye,  
  
Tomorrow's gonna come too soon..."  
  
"All but the Dreamers..."  
  
"After this,   
  
We shall never see each other again.."  
  
"Jinoji was crying..."  
  
"As long as there was this.."  
  
"...he lost his koibito."  
  
"Poliwag series mate for life..."  
  
"Ah, Spring! When a young man's fancy turns to love!"  
  
"I don't want to lose you."  
  
"You have no choice."  
  
"I did hope, though,  
  
That I'd get to say goodbye..."  
  
"Goodbye, koibito..."  
  
The maelstrom of voices fades.  
  
I see myself open my eyes.  
  
As soon as they are open,  
  
I am back in the reeds again,  
  
No longer in the sea of shimmering, glittering blue.  
  
In the reeds, my eyes open,   
  
But they feel different.  
  
I feel different.  
  
I want to leave the water.  
  
I want to...  
  
Run?  
  
Jump?  
  
Climb?  
  
I want to be free.  
  
I can feel this yearning,  
  
From the bottom of my long feet,  
  
To the tip of the plume on my head.  
  
I can almost cry with joy and sorrow,  
  
Because I am Politoed.  
  
Now, I am no longer bound to the community.  
  
Now, I can leave.  
  
I am free.  
  
I do cry, as I swim to the shore.  
  
I will miss Jinoji and Kuito.  
  
They will always have a place in my heart.  
  
And even though I am sorrowful for them,   
  
I am also filled,   
  
Somehow,  
  
Someway,  
  
With hope.  
  
It is too late for Jinoji and Kuito,  
  
But as my head breaks the surface,  
  
I think I can smell Yuyakyi.  
  
He is not far away. *** Yeah, I know, the title has nothing to do with the story. But I couldn't think of a better title. Did any of you notice that the narrator is nameless? She is just I, me, and my, and other characters refer to her as 'you' If I hadn't told you in the beginning, you wouldn't even know she was female. And also, about the other character's names, they were just sounds that I thought would make good names for the characters. If they mean something rude, profane, or weird, I honestly didn't know that and I'm sorry. Well people, I'd really appreciate it if you all would review it, even if it's only to tell me I suck. Tell me what you felt. Because if I made you smile, made you think, made you cry, or gave you a little more faith that tomorrow can be a better day, then I did what I'm supposed to do as a storyteller. :) And I would really like it if you left me the Japanese names for the Pokemon characters in your review, b/c I'm just browsing the files of FF.net, and I come across names like Musashi, Satoshi, and Kojiro, and I have no clue who these people are, so I would very much appreciate it if you left me their names in your review. Thanx. Goodbye, and remember: Lead me not into temptation, I can find the way myself. 


End file.
